Then there is "Anglo-Saxon" which is the blanket term Israelis use for
all Anglophones here, whatever their country of origin. Being called
"Anglo-Saxon" (plural; "Anglo-Saxim" pronounced with the shortest
possible second "a,") was very strange to me, particularly since in
my earlier life in the United States, I was anything but "anglo".

I worked with a guy who lived part of the year on Patmos, a Greek island.
There, he and his son had occasion to see donkeys in the area. His son knew
what donkeys were, but when he was about 4, he started calling them "doncs."
My friend puzzled about it for awhile, and then concluded that the kid had
inferred a rule about language and then mis-applied it. He had learned that
doggie is baby talk for dog, and horsie is baby talk for horse, and he was
trying to sound more grown up!

Recalling deep into the past, my mother told me that I came home crying,
from third grade, distressed that the teacher has insisted that I write
"Washington" with my eyes closed. The next PTA meeting brought
clarification: She had asked me to write "Washington" with my o's closed.

From: Marcia (queenauditATaol.com)
Subject: Old English

I would like to thank you for showing words that are derived from the
Old English version. I will someday be an English major (if I ever
decide to get out of college). I currently hold down a full time job
working with the military and also go to college on the side. Several
years ago when I transferred from CCRI to URI (University of Rhode
Island) I had the chance to take a graduate level english class.
I figured that as an older student I could handle it.
Boy was I ever misguided. I took the Old English class that they offered
and thought to myself that since I liked languages it should be pretty
easy. Not really logical I can now say but I did get through the class
with a B+. I worked harder for that class than any other class I have
ever taken. Due to having to learn to pronounce, translate and read the
old english I now have a fondness of looking to see if the words you use
are taken from old english or middle english. Thank you for bringing
back some "old" memories.

I always love your quotes at the bottom. This one happens to be one of my
favorites. However, there is a slightly better version of it that states
"whether elephants make love or war, it is the grass that suffers", which
adds just a bit more to the saying. At university I wrote a paper concerning
the Cold War in Africa that was titled "Whether elephants make love or war"
and argued that whether the US and USSR had disagreements or had tacit
agreements with each other about how a country should align itself, it was
always the little guys that suffered in the end.

Words are a mirror of their times. By looking at the areas in which the
vocabulary of a language is expanding fastest in a given period, we can form
a fairly accurate impression of the chief preoccupations of society at that
time and the points at which the boundaries of human endeavour are being
advanced. -John Ayto, lexicographer (1949- )